Have you ever had the experience of watching a play or film where you’ve gotten to the end of the story and all you could say was…huh? Or maybe the final moments made you so mad you wanted to throw your program – or your popcorn – at the stage or screen?
If so, you’ve witnessed a story that is missing building block #5 of writing a story: a satisfactory ending.
We’ve come to the end. Literally. Throughout our journey of creating a good story we’ve talked about creating a character with whom we have empathy, making sure that character wants something really, really badly, making that want extremely difficult (but possible) to achieve, and ensuring maximum emotional impact for the audience.
All these things are great and super important. But they can all fall flat without the right, satisfactory ending.
Notice I said “satisfactory.” This doesn’t necessarily mean a happy ending. It does mean, however, that the ending makes sense in terms of the journey we’ve all been on together for the last hour or two. If everything points to things working out at the end, doing a sudden “twist” where everyone dies would leave an audience unhappy. On the flip side, having a story where everything has gone wrong the whole time, or where there’s been every sign that this is not going to end well – only to twist it around at the last second to where everything resolves in a happily ever after – is going to be super jarring for an audience. Which is the sort of experience that leaves an audience unhappy when they leave the show.
So how do you create a satisfactory ending? The most important thing is that the audience can, at the end, understand how we got there. If everything is happy, then I should be able to follow the journey that resulted in a happy outcome. If everyone is sad, then I know the reasons why. Again, the ending makes sense when the entire story is finished.
Let’s take a look at a couple of examples. We’ll even go with Shakespeare. Let’s take a look at one of his most famous plays – Romeo and Juliet.
First off, Shakespeare sets expectations from the very, very beginning. In the prologue (i.e. the opening lines of the play), he writes:
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents’ strife.
In those four lines we learn that two lovers are going to die! That there are going to be misadventures! It’s going to be piteous! He basically put a big warning sign on the play – this is not going to end well!
So what would have happened if at the end, Romeo and Juliet, (spoiler alert if you don’t know the end of the play), lived happily ever after? If the poison didn’t work? If the dagger didn’t hit its mark? What if they got married, moved into their own home, and had a long and happy life together?
The audience would be confused! They wouldn’t understand. The whole time Shakespeare sets us up for tragedy – not only in the prologue but in the entire story. People die, lies are told, hearts are broken, feuds rage. It’s set up as hopeless. Impossible. They’re even called star-crossed (i.e. fate has decreed that their relationship must end in tragedy). While the ending is sad, of course, it is what the audience expects.
Therefore, it is satisfactory.
So let’s go back to the story we’ve been creating together – the one about Bailey, the girl during the Renaissance who wants to be a sculptress. We know she wants to travel to Florence and apprentice under the great Michaelangelo. She sacrificed her family and friends and life to make her dream come true. However, Michelangelo is not accepting female students. We care about Bailey because she has a big dream that is being stomped on by a sexist idea that a girl can’t do the same artistic work as a man.
How should this story end?
Well, part of that would depend on how we craft the story. Is Bailey beaten up at every turn? Does she never have any success? Does Michaelangelo throw her out on the street and she is forced to turn to a life of crime to survive?
If so, then most likely the story is going to end in tragedy. Bailey would die without her dream ever being fully recognized. A total bummer, but understandable based on the choices made throughout the story.
But what if she is given glimmers of hope? What if Michelangelo is hosting some sort of contest which, if she wins, he has to train her? What if another sculptor takes pity on her? What if we see her amazing work that is clearly superior to everyone else around?
If so, then most likely the story is going to end happily. Because there is hope sprinkled throughout. Yes it’s hard, and yes, maybe the audience doesn’t know exactly what is going to happen, but the expectation is set that Bailey is going to achieve her dream.
How would you end the story? Share your thoughts here! Who knows? We may just share them in an upcoming article or video.